Man stays free on bail

Ex-Nazareth High School wrestler, 19, is charged in three separate assaults last year.

Northampton County

February 07, 2001|By MATT ASSAD Of The Morning Call

A Nazareth Area High School wrestler with a long list of assault charges against him has been kicked off the team, but a Northampton County judge on Tuesday spared him a trip to a jail cell -- for now.

County prosecutors withdrew their petition that bail be revoked for 19-year-old Nickoles Lambert, so long as the former high school wrestler submits to random drug testing and court supervision.

Lambert, who lives on Daniels Road in Lower Nazareth Township, faces assault charges in several cases, including an alleged baseball bat attack on two Easton Area High School football players in Nazareth last summer.

In three separate cases last year, he was freed on little or no bail as he awaited trial. But last week prosecutors decided to petition to revoke bail after Lambert allegedly took drugs and alcohol during a trip to a wrestling meet in Hampton, Va., Jan. 11-14.

No charges were filed in the Virginia incident, but prosecutors said Lambert's action violated the terms of his prior releases.

Pretrial Services Director Christopher Kovalchik said Lambert has since been removed from the team. He could face trial as early as April, said Assistant District Attorney Teresa Miranda.

Miranda on Tuesday stepped back from her petition to toss Lambert in jail without bail, after he agreed to weekly court supervision and random drug testing.

"I don't think it's a matter of him being a flight risk," Kovalchik said. "I think the drug testing would be enough."

"If you violate any of these conditions, you will go to jail and you will sit in jail," President Judge Robert Freedberg said sternly. "Do you understand?"

"Yes, your honor," Lambert said.

Lambert attends a second-chance school in Lower Saucon Township, but as a student who lives in the Nazareth Area School District, he is eligible to participate in extracurricular activities, Nazareth schools Superintendent Victor Lesky said last week.

Kovalchik said Lambert was removed from the team after the incident in Virginia. Lesky did not return telephone messages Tuesday.

Lambert faces aggravated assault and other charges filed after a July 15 fracas in Nazareth in which he allegedly hit two Easton football players with a bat, seriously injuring one of them.

About a week before the Nazareth incident, Upper Nazareth Township police charged Lambert with punching Todd Messer of East Allen Township in the parking lot of the 7-Eleven store on E. Lawn Road after an argument over a girl. Messer suffered swelling and a chipped tooth, Miranda said.

Colonial Regional police charged Lambert with head-butting two people on July 12 at the Trolley Station Mall parking lot in Lower Nazareth, breaking the noses of both victims.

Kovalchik noted that Lambert has had no incidents since July and he has kept his court appointments.